Psychological and neurophysiological effects of a mindfulness-based intervention: a randomised control trial.

Introduction: Meditation practices and specifically mindfulness meditation, have been extensively studied for their positive impact on psychological and physical well-being in both healthy individuals and clinical populations. Integral Meditation (IM) is a mindfulness-based program that uniquely combines mindfulness with other meditation techniques to enhance psychophysical health. This study examined the effects of IM on psychological and neurophysiological outcomes.Methods: In a randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effects of Integral Meditation (IM) in 50 young adults, who were assigned to either the intervention group (n=22) or an inactive control group (n=28). We tested pre- to post-intervention changes and group differences in a comprehensive set of psychological and neurophysiological variables via linear regression analyses. Specifically, we measured dispositional mindfulness, state and trait anxiety, interoceptive sensibility, and interoceptive accuracy using validated self-report questionnaires and the Heartbeat Tracking Task. These metrics were complemented by individual alpha-band frequency and power, as obtained from resting state electroencephalography.Results: Results showed statistically significant increases in the IM group for dispositional mindfulness, interoceptive sensibility, attention regulation and Self-regulation, but no effects were observed for trait and state anxiety, interoceptive accuracy and alpha-band metrics. We further assessed if the intervention’s effect varied dependent on baseline measurement. A statistically significant result was found only for Individual Alpha Peak (IAP) power, indicating that the intervention effect was higher when participants had lower IAP power baseline scores. Partial correlation analyses indicated moderate associations between changes in psychological and neurophysiological variables from pre- to post-training. Follow-up exploratory analyses revealed that the link between IAP at baseline and positive intervention effects were strongest in a left-lateralized electrode cluster.Conclusion: Overall, these results suggest that IM is associated with both psychological and neurophysiological changes, demonstrating the potential of meditation practices to enhance mindfulness and interoceptive sensibility. Additionally, IM modulates brain alpha activity, with baseline individual alpha power serving as a predictor of intervention efficacy.